Experience around food is about the place. The time and the people, and “the best meal” can be found in a fine dining restaurant or in a crowded street market. How can you recreate that special moment influenced by place and time? Travel is becoming the most popular reason to visit many places around the world. Here are the places that consistently excite the senses.

    South of France

    Markets with fresh fruits and vegetables and butcher shops are abundant. Regional(地区的)wines are excellent. And freshly baked French bread with French butter is what memories are made of. Take a chair in an ancient walled city for a meal with a view that you will never forget.

    Barcelona

    This bustling city filled with unique buildings is a city for lovers of history, architecture, and food. Kiosko Universal, a counter restaurant at one comer of the market, prepares some of the simplest and best food we've ever had. Give yourself a week to explore and see everything the city offers. The city is not to be missed.

    Italy

    It's hard to choose one place or city to visit. Some of our favorite places include the coastal regions on the Adriatic and Tuscany. Friuli stole our hearts last year with its many unique wines, small artisan food producers, and influences fro neighboring countries like Austria and Germany.

    Mexico City

    From unbelievable food markets and casual street stands, Mexico City has become the place to travel for the food lovers. If you want to eat locally, order a Hurache, a street food specialty. All you will need is a local microbrew or Mezcal(龙舌兰酒)to wash it down.

    I know what you're thinking: pizza? For breakfast? But the truth is that you can have last night's leftovers in the a. m. if you want to.

    I know lots of women who skip breakfast, and they have a ton of different excuses for doing it. Some say they don't have time, others think they're “saving” calories, still others just don't like breakfast food.

    But the bottom line is that eating in the morning is very important when you're trying to lose weight. “Eating just about anything from 300 to 400 calories would be better than nothing at all,” says Katherine Brooking, R., D., who developed the super-easy eating plan for this year's “SELF CHALLENGE”. And even pizza can be healthy if it's loaded with vegetables, and you stick to one small piece.

    Breakfast is one meal I never miss, and the same goes for most weight loss success stories. Research shows that eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that breakfast skippers have a bigger chance of gaining weight than those who regularly have a morning meal.

So eat something in the morning, anything. I know plenty of friends who end up having no breakfast at all, and have just coffee or orange juice. I say, try heating up last night's leftovers—it may sound crazy, but if it works for you, do it! I find if I tell myself, “You can always eat it tomorrow,” I put away the leftovers instead of eating more that night. Try it…you may save yourself some pre-bedtime calories. And watch your body gain the fat-burning effects.

    A black hole is created when a large star burns out. Like our sun, stars are unbelievably hot furnaces(熔炉) that burn their own matter as fuel. When most of the fuel is used up, the star begins to die.

    The death of a star is not a quiet event. First there is a huge explosion. As its outer layer is blasted off into space, the dying star shines as brightly as a billion suns.

    After the explosion, gravity pulls in what's left of the star. As the outside of the star sinks toward the center, the star gets smaller and smaller. The material the star is made of becomes tightly packed together. A star is so solid that a teaspoon of matter from it weighs billion of pounds.

    The more the star shrinks(收缩), the stronger the gravity inside it becomes. Soon the star is very tiny, and the gravity pulling it in is unbelievably strong. In fact, the gravity is so strong that it even pulls light into the star! Since all the light is pulled in, none can go out. The star becomes black when there is no light. Then a black hole is born!

    That's what we know about black holes. What we don't know is this: What happens inside a black hole after the star has been squeezed into a tiny ball? Does it keep getting smaller and smaller forever? Such a possibility is hard to imagine.

    But if the black hole doesn't keep shrinking, what happens to it? Some scientists think black holes are like doorways to another world. They say that as the star disappears from our universe, it goes into another universe. In other words a black hole in our universe could turn into a "white hole" in a different universe. As the black hole swallows(吞噬) light, the white hole shines brightly--somewhere else. But where? A different place, perhaps, or a different time--many years in the past or future.

    Could you travel through a black hole? Right now, no. Nothing we know of could go into a black hole without being crushed(挤压). So far the time being, black hole must remain a mystery.

    Black holes are a mystery--but that hasn't stopped scientists from dreaming about them. One scientist suggested that in the future we might make use of the power of black holes. They would supply all of Earth's energy needs, with plenty to spare. Another scientist wondered if a black hole could some day be used to swallow earthly waste--a sort of huge waste disposal(处理) in the sky!

    A sunflower is a sunflower. A mobile phone is a mobile phone. But can you combine the two to do something for your local environment? As early as next year it may well be possible. When you have finished with your mobile phone you will be able to bury it in a garden or a plant pot and wait for it to flower.

    A biodegradable (生物所能分解的) mobile phone was, this month, introduced by scientists. It is hoped that the new type of phone will encourage consumers to recycle.

    Scientists have come up with a new material over the last five years. It looks like any other plastic and can be hard or soft, and is able to change shape. Over time it can also break down into the soil without giving out any poisonous chemicals. British researchers used the new material to develop a phone cover that contains a sunflower seed. When this new type of cover turns into waste, it forms fertilizers. These feed the seed and help the flower grow.

    Engineers have designed a small transparent (透明的) window to hold the seed. They have made sure it only grows when the phone is throw n away. “We've only put sunflower seeds into the covers so far. But we are working with plant experts to find out which flowers would perform best. Maybe we could put roses in next time.” said one scientist.

    As phone technology is developing so quickly, people are constantly throwing their mobiles away. This means manufacturers are under pressure to find ways of recycling them. Some 650 million mobile phones have been sold this year. Most of them will be throw n away within two years, adding plastic, heavy metal and chemical waste to the environment. A biodegradable cover can offer some relief for nature, according to the scientists.

    “The seed comes out and the flower grows in the pot so you don't have to concern yourself with the phone when you have finished using it,” said Kerry Kirwan. She leads the research team, which is based at the University of Warwick in Britain.

Are You a Morning Person?

    Mornings are not for everyone. Knowing that our own bodies may be wired to prefer a certain time of day is certainly a relief. But many of us still have to wake up and function during those first daylight hours. So what can you do?

    We tapped a variety of experts—from sleep experts to nutritionists to life organizational pros—to share their tricks on how to make morning less stressful and more pleasant (for) even the most after-hours of night owls.

    ①Night waking

    Poor sleep quality can explain why we sometimes wake up from eight hours of snoozing and feel like we only clocked in at four. "It's normal to have one or two awakenings, but more than that leaves us feeling groggy in the morning because of the fragmented sleep," [explains Shelby Harris, director of the behavioral sleep medicine program at Montefiore Medical Center.]

    ②The Science of snoozing

    The snooze button does more harm than good. Nodding off again sends you into a light and fragmented sleep! Multiple snoozes can leave you feeling groggier than just getting out of bed the first time.

    Instead, be honest about the time you intend to get up and then enjoy every last minute of shuteye, so you can wake up alert and ready to go.

    ③Don't ease into your workday

    It can be tempting to plow through the easy things early on-checking e-mail, scanning the headlines—but it's wise to tackle the bigger stuff first. "Getting to work on the most important tasks not only ups the chances that they actually get done, but it also leaves you with a burst of accomplishment to take with you the rest of the day," says Jason Selk, coauthor of Organize Tomorrow Today.

    ④Save social media for later

    Schedule a social media block later in the afternoon to check in when you're likely to need a break anyway, and save the morning for the important stuff.

Vocabulary Focus

    tap(v) [tæp] to get or make use of something

    groggy (adj) ['gragi] weak and unable to think clearly or walk correctly, usually because of tiredness or illness

    shuteye (n) ['ʃʌtai] sleep

    plow through (something) (phr v) to finish reading, eating or dealing with something with difficulty